Unconventional pilgrim Sir John to make rapid progress

After 16 months spent pulling strings and drawing up a draft European constitution, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s right hand man, Sir John Kerr, has another big plan.

Kerr told EN that, after the Convention of the EU’s future finally wraps-up in mid-July, he will follow the 750-plus kilometre route of Saint Jacques de Compostelle, from central France to Spain. The route has attracted pilgrims since the Middle Ages.

Asked whether he will go on foot, as many of the faithful do in order to absolve their sins, the Briton was unequivocal: “No way,” he said: “I’ll drive there in my old Jaguar.”

But some cynical observers feel that Kerr should actually make the trip not on foot, but on his knees – as many pious believers did. This, they say, might help him to gain absolution for having foisted a controversial constitution upon an unsuspecting Europe.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …